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The Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco, circa 1960. Highway engineers once thought it was a good idea to build a massive decked freeway right along San Francisco's waterfront. When the earthquake of 1989 badly damaged the Embarcadero, a decision was made to tear it all the way down. No one misses it.

From San Francisco to Seoul, writes Alisa Walker, cities have achieved addition through subtraction by replacing antiquated elevated freeways not with bigger, newer freeways but with airy boulevards, greenbelts, parks, bike paths, trails, and other people-friendly amenities.

“Many freeway systems were overbuilt in an auto-obsessed era,” Walker writes. Some cities realize they’re “healthier, greener, and safer” without so many highways.

“It turns out that when you take out a high-occupancy freeway, it doesn’t turn the surface streets into the equivalent of the Autobahn,” she writes. “A theory called ‘induced demand’ proves that if you make streets bigger, more people will use them. When you make them smaller, drivers discover and use other routes, and traffic turns out to be about the same.”

Elevated freeways are usually ugly and intrusive. They destroy neighborhoods. They create barriers between different parts of a city. They leech the life out of wide swaths of the urban landscape.

Interstate 345, which joins Interstate 30 to the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, appears to be guilty on all counts.

It was completed in the early 1970s as part of the loop of expressways around downtown Dallas. That loop was “envisioned as a means of keeping through traffic out of the central business district,” writes Architecture Critic Mark Lamster. Instead, it “acts as a noose that segregates the urban core from the rest of the city, suppressing its vitality and economic prospects.”

The freeway’s “effects on its immediate surroundings have been brutal,” he writes. “Where there was once an active streetscape, there is now a wind-swept terrain of empty lots, twisted streets and orphaned buildings, a blighted zone familiar to anyone who has driven by or, in a fit of brazen defiance, attempted to traverse it by foot.”

The Texas Department of Transportation on Thursday released its list of the top 25 scofflaw violators.

Sixteen primary vehicle owners from central Texas were exposed for owing more than $100,000 in tolls and fees, with two owing more than $200,000.

Brandon Formby reported that the department, which runs the toll roads in the Austin and Laredo areas, was following in the footsteps of the North Texas Tollway Authority by cracking down on motorists who don’t fork up the tolls. The move is meant to shame those drivers.

Rawlings and Dallas City Council Member Vonciel Jones Hill wrote to TxDOT Executive Director Phil Wilson on Thursday that the city “strenuously opposes” the plan to hand over control of 1,900 miles of roads to urban cities and counties across Texas.

The extra maintenance costs for those affected local governments would total $165 million a year statewide. And the Dallas officials said in the letter to Wilson that the plan was “unfair” and “leans heavily toward double taxation.”

“This proposal will save taxpayers no money since it merely shifts costs from one branch of government to another,” Rawlings and Hill wrote. “Taxpayers would not pay less. Their money would simply be spent at a different level of government.”

Fort Worth and the Texas Municipal League have also publicly voiced their dislike of the proposal. And Texas Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff, an Arlington businessman, said he has reservations about the idea.

Vandergriff and four other transportation commissioners will discuss the proposal at an Aug. 29 meeting in Austin. No action will be taken then, and TxDOT officials have stressed that they merely want to begin a conversation on possible cost-cutting measures.

The general idea is that many state farm-to-market roads and highways have evolved into city streets that serve local traffic. TxDOT has identified about 100 miles of roads in Dallas that meet that criteria and are being considered for the “turnback” program.

TxDOT officials have said those roads might be better served under city or county control. And Wilson has noted that the local governments would then have the final say over things like driveway access, speed limits and maintenance schedules.

Rawlings and Hill acknowledged that potential — under certain circumstances — in their letter to Wilson. The officials pointed out that Dallas already took control of a portion of Irving Boulevard, but only so the city could determine design features on a larger project.

“ln that case, Dallas’ acquisition of the highway was the most efficient use of funds,” they wrote. “Such would not be the case with multiple urban State highways imposed upon Dallas through the “Turnback” program.”

Vandergriff, an Arlington businessman, said he knows the Texas Department of Transportation must find ways to shore up its depleted coffers. And he said some roads would likely be better served under cities’ controls.

But Vandergriff expressed concern that many of the cities and counties being considered just don’t have the budget flexibility to absorb those roads’ maintenance costs: an estimated $165 million a year statewide.

“We’re going to have a pretty robust discussion about whether this is a wise move,” he said after a ribbon-cutting for the DFW Connector project in Grapevine. “For me personally, I question it.”

Vandergriff and the four other transportation commissioners are slated to explore the plan Aug. 29 at a meeting in Austin. No action will be taken, and TxDOT has invited city and county leaders to share their thoughts on the idea.

TxDOT notified cities and counties – in and around large, urban areas – of the cost-cutting “turnback” program in a letter last week.

In TxDOT’s Dallas district – which includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Rockwall, Kaufman and Navarro counties – the agency has identified 70 road segments that could be sent back to cities.

That nearly 265 miles of road includes 37 miles of Northwest Highway in Dallas, 11 miles of Cross Timbers Road in Flower Mound and six miles of Irving Boulevard in Irving.

Phil Wilson, TxDOT’s executive director, reiterated Wednesday that his agency is dealing with the realities of a budget that needs another $3 billion a year. And that’s even after the Legislature this year found TxDOT an extra $1.2 billion annually, pending voter approval.

Wilson, also at the DFW Connector ribbon cutting, said TxDOT started looking at roads that have evolved beyond their initial purpose. Many are state farm-to-market roads or other arterial roads that have grown into city streets that serve local traffic.

“These roads are not really about what TxDOT’s historic mission has been about: connectivity from city-to-city,” he said.

Wilson, who stressed that the conversation was just beginning, said cities could benefit in some ways from the increased local control. He said cities would have the final say over things like driveway access, speed limits and maintenance schedules.

But the Texas Municipal League has panned the plan, as has Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. And Vandergriff’s position could signal broader opposition, especially since he said he’s already heard grumbling from a few other cities.

GRAPEVINE – A $1.1 billion project to untangle highway traffic north of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is slated to wrap up by early October – a full nine months ahead of schedule.

The DFW Connector, an overhaul of State Highways 114 and 121, will double capacity on a stretch that already sees 180,000 drivers each day. The corridor will be 24 lanes across at its widest spot, including main lanes, frontage roads and tolled managed lanes.

Federal, state and local officials gathered Wednesday to celebrate the DFW Connector’s upcoming completion. They cheered the occasion, after nearly four years of work, as more than just the usual ribbon cutting.

“For the past three and a half years, the DFW Connector has been a symbol of America’s … recovery from the worst economic issues we have faced in many years” said Victor Mendez, the top official at the Federal Highway Administration.

The DFW Connector will be the Texas Department of Transportation’s first highway in North Texas built as a public-private partnership, a factor that helped speed construction timelines and save money. And the project benefited from an unprecedented $260 million infusion of federal stimulus dollars.

But for those who live, work and drive around the project, the finish line is a welcome sight for more basic reasons: the end of frustrating detours and closures and the promise of free-flowing travel in what was once known as the “Grapevine Funnel.”

“We’re just glad it’s done,” said Perry Leonard, an owner of Blagg Tire and Service in Grapevine. “We’re going to have more opportunities to bring people to the area, and we hope it revitalizes the area a little bit.”

The DFW Connector will reach in mid-September or early October “substantial completion,” which means the end of lane closures and major work. Some crews will remain in the area to finish off landscaping, painting and other tasks.

Dry weather over the last few years is largely responsible for the early finish. But TxDOT officials had already estimated that the project would take almost four years less and cost $400 million less than a traditional project.

The reason: The DFW Connector was a public-private partnership that used a design-build method. That setup gave the contractor, NorthGate Constructors, more flexibility over its work and more opportunities to try some innovative techniques.

NorthGate, for instance, gathered the concrete from the old lanes, crushed it up and used it for the highway’s base layer. It took all the old steel rebar and recycled it for use in reinforcing the new concrete. The contractor also had a concrete batch plant on site to save trips.

“From the beginning to end, this project has led in innovation,” said Phil Wilson, TxDOT’s executive director.

Even with those efficiency measures, the DFW Connector in its current form almost didn’t happen. Facing a funding shortfall in 2009, TxDOT officials started preparing for a scaled-down $667 million version of the project.

Rather than overhauling large swaths of both State Highways 114 and 121, the project would’ve focused just on the lanes west of D/FW’s north entrance.

But then the federal government swooped in with $260 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus. Officials said the award was the largest single stimulus award for any transportation project in the country.

And TxDOT has since found some additional cash to improve Grapevine Mills Parkway, which links to the main project, as a separate effort in the coming months.

“It went from a big project to a very, very big project,” said TxDOT spokesman Tony Hartzel.

The biggest difference drivers will notice on the DFW Connector is all the extra lanes and easier paths to Grapevine, Southlake and other nearby locales.

But there will also be improved access to and from D/FW. Traffic will now be better segregated between 121, 114 and nearby Interstate 635. And new flyover bridges between 114 and 121 have replaced connections that required motorists to drive on surface streets in some instances.

It won’t be until early next year, though, that drivers can take a trip through the project’s tolled managed lanes, known as TEXpress Lanes. TxDOT must still install the tolling equipment on a four-mile stretch of SH 114 and test it.

TEXpress lanes allow anyone, including single-occupant vehicles, to pay a fee to ride the fast lanes; vehicles with two or more occupants will receive a discount.

DFW Connector’s TEXpress Lanes will be two lanes in each direction. Officials haven’t yet determined the exact toll rates on those lanes. But prices are expected to be on the lower end, around 16 cents per mile.

Given all the extra free capacity being added, they don’t expect a tremendous amount of traffic at first on the managed lanes. But officials know the region will only continue to grow, bringing more cars and trucks in the process.

“We used to refer to this as the funnel,” said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley. “Now we call it the connector because hopefully we’ve removed that funnel part of it for at least a number of years into the future.”

Construction on the DFW Connector has come a long way since this photo in late 2010. The massive overhaul of state highways 121 and 114 is slated to open by early October at the latest.

Workers install in 2003 new signs that feature lower speed limits on many North Texas freeways. Transportation planners are now looking at reversing course and raising the speeds again.

North Texas planners are looking at raising the speed limit by 5 mph or more on several freeways, as it’s been determined that the environmental impact of such action could be offset by other pollution mitigation efforts.

Among the roads that could get on the faster track: Interstate 45, south of Interstate 20; Interstate 35E, south of I-20; U.S. Highway 67, south of I-20; I-20, east of Interstate 635; Interstate 30, east of State Highway 205; Interstate 35W, north of Texas Motor Speedway; and I-20, between Interstate 820 and State Highway 360.

The changes won’t likely happen for at least six months, if everything goes according to plan. The speed limits — and associated environmental factors — must be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Transportation Commission.

The Regional Transportation Council — part of the North Central Texas Council of Governments — will be briefed on the proposed changes at a meeting Thursday afternoon in Irving. The agenda item is expected to be information-only, with no action taken today.

Planners reduced the speed limits on many of the same roads about a decade ago in an effort to improve air quality. But subsequent action by the Legislature has allowed for the faster highway speeds, and transportation officials found the air quality impact of raising the limits to be relatively small.

Check out the RTC briefing — including a more detailed list of the impacted freeways — after the jump.

Fog rolls in over the Trinity River and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in downtown Dallas early Thursday morning on May 23, 2013.2013.

Dallas’ newest and arguably most famous span — the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge over the Trinity River — is getting its first check-up.

And that means drivers traveling between downtown Dallas and west Dallas next week will face lane closures, as Texas Department of Transportation workers scale the bridge’s 400-foot arch and dangle over traffic lanes to inspect the span.

TxDOT looks at every bridge in the state once every two years. And while the Hunt Hill Bridge opened to traffic only 14 months ago, the Santiago Calatrava-designed span is due for its routine examination.

On Monday and Tuesday, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., the bridge’s two left lanes in both directions will be closed. On Wednesday, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., the eastbound side’s shoulder and two right lanes will be shut down. And on Thursday, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., the westbound side’s shoulder two right lanes will be closed.

All those closures are contingent upon weather permitting workers to scale the bridge. And even though TxDOT announced the inspection as a traffic advisory, officials also cautioning drivers to not be alarmed by workers up on the bridge.

For more information on roads and traffic updates, follow TxDOT’s Dallas office on Twitter at @txdotdallaspio.

Take a look at what could be the silver lining to those lane reductions that start this week on the LBJ Freeway between the Dallas North Tollway and Interstate 35E.

That’s the frontage road bypass lanes that are being built two years ahead of schedule on the massive $2.7 billion LBJ Express project. It’s a little hard to visualize in the above video, since the rendering shows how things will look upon completion in 2015.

Bypass roads — elevated ramps over intersections — will be installed on the frontage road westbound at Midway Road and eastbound and westbound at Webb Chapel Road and Josey Lane.

At those spots, drivers will encounter a fork in the frontage road. Go one way, and the driver will hit a stoplight at that street. Go the other, and the driver will avoid that intersection and travel to the next one.

Officials hope the bypasses — set to be completed by late November — also will ease congestion.

In any case, the related lane reduction on westbound LBJ from the Dallas North Tollway to just east of Webb Chapel Road begins Monday night. And there’s more to come. So plan accordingly.

Among the biggest roads affected by the change: I-30 between downtown Dallas and the Tarrant County line; I-30 to the east of the LBJ Freeway and into Rockwall County; I-35E between downtown Dallas and just beyond the Ellis County line; LBJ Freeway between North Central Expressway and I-30; and North Central Expressway between LBJ Freeway and the Sam Rayburn Tollway.

The proposal still needs approval next month from the Texas Transportation Commission.

But pending that OK, crews will start installing signs later this summer. Trucks caught in the wrong lane would then be subject to a citation, unless they were using the left lane to pass other vehicles or to enter and exit the highway.

The truck lane restrictions have proved popular among motorists, but some truckers aren’t thrilled about the increased use of the policy.

John Esparza, president of the Texas Motor Transportation Association told the Star-Telegram that the state should focus on more problematic drivers and that the expanded policy could create more congestion in the right lane.

“If you limit trucks to the right lane, you are putting folks entering the freeway into more jeopardy,” he told the Start-Telegram.

A bicyclist rides north on The Cottonwood Bike Trail under the High Five interchange at 75/Central and 635/LBJ on May 20, 2010.

Nearly a dozen North Texas hike-and-bike trails will share in a $13 million windfall from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

The group’s Regional Transportation Council on Thursday approved, as expected, a plan to jump-start bike and pedestrian trail projects in Dallas, Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties.

Among the biggest winners are in Dallas.

The SoPac trail, which runs along the old Southern Pacific rail line near White Rock Lake, got $3 million. The Coombs Creek trail extension, tied to the revamp of downtown’s Interstate 30 bridge, received $2 million.

Since the federal funds were secured by the Texas Department of Transportation, the project list must still receive final approval this summer from the Texas Transportation Commission. But officials expect that to be a formality.